Dirk Niepelt

NSO Group “creates technology that helps government agencies prevent and investigate terrorism and crime to save thousands of lives around the globe,” according to the technology group’s website. But according to the FT (article, article, article), NSO has (also) helped governments around the world to target journalists and dissidents. The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab knows more—and offers advice on how to take precautions.

“Macroeconomic Analysis is the rare textbook that is both comprehensive and rigorous, as well as concise and simple. By staying focused on the core model of dynamic macroeconomics, it elegantly navigates through many topics. After studying this book, students will be ready to join the exciting debates in modern macroeconomics.” —Ricardo Reis, A. W. Phillips Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science (To be continued.) Forthcoming, MIT Press. Book page....

“A needed, up-to-date primer on macroeconomic theory. It is comprehensive, covering all the essential topics, from optimal consumption and labor supply to economic growth, business cycles, and asset markets. It is thorough and rigorous, yet accessible, as it requires little prior knowledge of the key concepts and mathematical tools.” —George-Marios Angeletos, Professor of Economics, MIT (To be continued.) Forthcoming, MIT Press. Book page.

The BIS has published a report on stablecoins. On Alphaville Izabella Kaminska approves but argues that the report does not contain novel points. One aspect discussed in the report concerns the benefit of stablecoins for cross-border payments; it may be limited unless technology is able to address the key friction: A major obstacle to the interlinking of domestic payment systems and/or the development of shared global payment platforms is differing legal frameworks across jurisdictions...

“This book provides an excellent introduction into dynamic macroeconomics. Its analysis is deep, self-contained, and still concise. The chapters on labor search frictions, financial frictions, and money are an extra plus and make it a superb choice for a first-year PhD or advanced Masters’ course in macroeconomics.” —Markus Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics, Princeton University (To be continued.) Forthcoming, MIT Press. Book page.

“An orderly and elegant presentation of essential ideas of modern macroeconomics with a perfect mix of tools and applications.” —Thomas Sargent, Professor of Economics, New York University (To be continued.) Forthcoming, MIT Press. Book page.

From the SNB’s press release regarding the newly established BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Switzerland: The Swiss Centre will initially conduct research on two projects. The first of these will examine the integration of digital central bank money into a distributed ledger technology infrastructure. This new form of digital central bank money would be aimed at facilitating the settlement of tokenised assets between financial institutions. Tokens are digital assets that can be transferred...

The BIS has issued two reports that assess the implications of unconventional monetary policies. The report prepared by the Committee on the Global Financial System discusses … a number of unconventional monetary policy tools (UMPTs). After a decade of experience with UMPTs the report takes stock of central banks’ experience and draws some lessons for the future. The report focuses on four sets of tools: negative interest rate policies, new central bank lending operations, asset purchase...

In the July issue of the American Economic Review, Ruben Durante, Paolo Pinotti, and Andrea Tesei argue that entertainment TV has shaped Italian politics and affected the cognitive skills of viewers. From the abstract: We study the political impact of commercial television in Italy exploiting the staggered introduction of Berlusconi’s private TV network, Mediaset, in the early 1980s. We find that individuals with early access to Mediaset all-entertainment content were more likely to vote...

There is widespread international interest in CBDC, Libra, and the like. E.g., my VoxEU column on Libra and CBDC is discussed on the Czech news platform patria.cz. And my JME paper with Markus Brunnermeier is discussed on the Turkish site digitalage.com.tr.